02.13.08
An Open Letter to Spock.com
Dave sent me a link to a site called Spock.com that has scraped a whole bunch of sites to create an all about Brandon Wirtz page. Only problem, is that I don’t want to have my Name and Address and current social status some where other than where I put it. Since I didn’t agree to share that information. So I sent the below letter to privacy@spock.com .
Hello,
It has come to my attention that your site has "Scraped" many of my pages hosted on numerous social networks.
This kind of Activity would be a violation of the Terms of Use of these networks and potentially of federal and state laws.
Please confirm that in the future you will not scrape or otherwise attempt to obtain in any manner information pertaining to Brandon Wirtz, and that you will immediately delete and not use in any manner any such information you may have previously obtained.
I reserve the right to take any appropriate action in connection with any activities that violate the Terms of Use and/or applicable laws, including the pursuit of legal remedies.
Please reply to this email.
Brandon Wirtz
We will see if they respond, but over all I dislike the dis-service. If I have a Myspace page and want to make it private I can. With Spock I have no control over how my information is used. And while Myspace and Facebook have detection built in to prevent scraping to some degree, any information that ends up on Spock is beyond my control.
The Image I wish to put out on LinkedIn, Yahoo, Facebook, a Myspace are all slightly different versions of me. I only agree to share the information I do in those places in return for the benefit that I get from them. LinkeIn.com offers me an opportunity to grow my business. Facebook is where I keep track of my co-workers goings ons, and Myspace is where I interact with my highschool friends. Each of these services have a TOS to protect my information from non-members. Spock.com violates these terms of use and I would be personally very happy if Facebook, Myspace, and Linkedin enforced those terms with legal action.
Some what related to this post Facebook disabled my account
*Update
Hi Brandon,
Please reply with the URL of your search result so that we can look into the matter. If you would like to have your search result removed, please make private the page from which we crawled. This will ensure that we do not crawl your page again in the future.
Best,
The Spock Team
So I sent the following:
Follows are the two URL’s on your site. I have no obligation to make private any of the services I am using, as the terms of their service grants them right to the use of my image and text with-in their copyright. I have a similar agreement with Google for the use of images on my site. I have no such agreement with Spock, and as such view the use of my Images and Text as an infringement on my copyright, and the copyright of the photographer.
Doing some searches through Spock it was not hard to find definite copyright infringements. Somehow I don’t think Spock has permission to use images from ABC
Heath Ledger image from ABC linked on http://www.spock.com/Heath-Ledger
Maia said,
February 15, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Hi Brandon,
This is Maia, from Spock. We went ahead and deleted your search results - all you have to do is ask. However, we cannot guarantee that we will not re-index publicly available information about you in the future. This is why - if you read the email above - we recommend making profiles private if you don’t want them to be available to everyone. Spock is a search engine: we index publicly available information and link back to the source. We try our best to comply with all sites’ robot.txt files when indexing them. Just like other search engines, copyrights are preserved because we link back to the source. Feel free to email me personally if you have any other questions.
Best,
Maia
Brandon Wirtz said,
February 15, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Maia,
Thanks for stopping by.
I disagree with your stance on copyright. So does Google. For Google to index my images in their image search I have to Opt In using their webmaster tools. This is the result of several bouts Google had with people complaining with or with out lawyers.
Like the Heath Ledger Example above you do link to the original source, but you also have a fairly high resolution copy of the image hosted on your service.
Under the logic you propose I would be fine Mining your service to start my own competing service. As I have several sites with a PR 7 I could out rank you for all of your content, and based on your explanation of Search engine and Indexing be in the clear.
Sulu.com is for sale…. I may just have to do that.
Dave Myers said,
February 17, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I would like to comment on one very specific aspect of this post: the premise that people SHOULD have total control over their online profiles/reputation.
I’m of the opinion that just as in “real life” where people can only influence their reputation, this same convention should exist online. If people search engines, social networks, and the like solely relied on individuals to publish and update their information, the Web would be full of sparse, stagnant, and mostly inaccurate profiles of people. And come to think of it, that’s pretty much how things are now.
Whether or not companies like Spock can legally exist I have no idea, but I strongly believe they SHOULD exist to keep us all accountable and nimble.